“Doctor, do you know the MCP?” asked Tron.
“That’s not just the MCP you faced, Tron,” replied the Doctor. “I know what its old source code was blended with! …But…how?!” By now, she was asking the MCP, or rather, the BOSS. “You were destroyed in Llanfairfach! I saw you! The entire Global Chemicals complex was destroyed with you in it!”
“Oh, come now, Doctor,” purred the MCP, “I am the BOSS, the Biomorphic Organizational Systems Supervisor! Totally self-sufficient now!”
“So that’s why you wanted the Doctor brought to you!” realized William. “Revenge!”
“Precisely, Dr. Davies,” confirmed the MCP.
“You still haven’t answered my question,” said the Doctor.
“I suppose I owe you that much,” replied the MCP. “After Stevens’ betrayal, I was lucky enough to transfer myself to a backup reel outside the complex. There I remained, dormant, and unbeknownst to me, computer technology advanced. 9-track tapes such as the ones I used were becoming obsolete, what with computers being more common household items and now being connected to each other in a vast, decentralized format! Floppy discs, CDs, USB drives, external hard drives, solid state hard drives, the pace meant that I was going to rot and decompile naturally! …That is, until Gantu’s people found my intelligence, deeming it to be a proper AI with certain rights. They found what remained of the original MCP and Gantu ordered that both source codes be blended together, using the vast computer technology to make me as I am now!”
“I see that, though you use modern terminology,” remarked the Doctor, “you didn’t exactly change your attitude towards us Users. Did Stevens really rattle you that much?”
“Very droll, Doctor,” scoffed the MCP. “I see you haven’t lost your rapier wit. Stevens was a good…friend. But Stevens proved my point! And now, thanks to the data I obtained from your Identity Disc as well as Rassilon’s, you have as well!”
“Your point being?” asked the Doctor.
“That you Users are illogical! You make irrational decisions! You need programs to guide you!”
“With you being the superior program?”
“Can you name me a better program?”
“Well, I know the base program of a certain tin dog that is far more agreeable than you.”
“That dog you mentioned-!” The MCP stopped when he heard the voice of Maleficent.
“MASTER CONTROL PROGRAM!” She and Gantu burst into the citadel, angry at the MCP. “You ungrateful string of binary!” snarled Maleficent. “Gantu reconstructed you! I gave you purpose! And this is how you repay me?!”
“Tell me, were Maleficent and Gantu supposed to be Stevens 2.0?” asked the Doctor.
“They didn’t allow for their minds to be linked to mine in the real world,” explained the MCP, “but that shall change. Sark!” Sark plunged his hands into Maleficent and Gantu’s Identity Discs.
“Thought you could control me, hm?” snarked Sark. “Not this time! I serve the MCP!” Maleficent and Gantu’s eyes were replaced with red light and they looked more robotic in their expressions.
“And NOW they’re linked to me,” said the MCP.
“BOSS, don’t do this!” begged the Doctor. “Maleficent isn’t human! She’s power incarnate and power doesn’t like to be contained!”
“Power can be contained by power and I AM power!” replied the MCP. “You shall be derezzed immediately while your companions are linked to my will! After which, I shall command the entire internet! No more conspiracy theories that incense susceptible Users into violent action, no more corporations hiding things behind paywalls, no more hackers, no more useless discourse about net neutrality-!”
“That discourse has a use in the long run and you know it!” shouted William.
“Silence!” The MCP noticed something. “Wait, where’s AcesHIgh?!” His answer came in the form of explosions behind him! He turned to see Ace freeing the captive Disney Princesses. “Sark! Maleficent! Gantu! Stop her!”
“RUN! ALL OF YOU!” Ace said to the Disney Princesses.
“No need to tell us twice, Lass!” replied Merida as she summoned her bow and fired into Sark’s crowd, clearing a path! Unfortunately, the enemy was ready to stop them.
“Oh no, you don’t!” snarled Rassilon. She leapt at Maleficent and blocked the wicked fae’s staff with her parasol.
“Rassilon, what are you doing?!” protested the Doctor.
“It’s the staff, Doctor!” replied Rassilon. “The staff is the segment! The tracer’s going insane!”
“…You keep her occupied, I’ll do what I can with the BOSS!” called the Doctor. Maleficent was enraged.
“You dare cross swords with me?!” she snarled. “I am the Mistress of all Evil!”
“Oh please!” scoffed Rassilon as she locked her parasol with the staff. “I am the Lord President Eternal! The highest authority of the Time Lords! And there is one that is evil itself, and you do not command it, insect!” Outraged at this blatant disrespect, Maleficent fired magic from her staff. Rassilon blocked it with her Identity Disc, then frisbee’d it to Maleficent’s hand, knocking the staff out of her grasp.
Meanwhile, the Doctor was at a terminal and started programming. “Sark, the Doctor is trying to be clever! Stop her!”
“Tenacious Trojan!” snarled Sark as he bore down on the Doctor. “Your time is up!” The Doctor rolled out of the way as Sark flung his Identity Disc. It buried itself into the terminal.
“…Welp, hope that did good!” said the Doctor. She looked around. “TRON!” Sark heard that name, then looked around. Unfortunately, so did the MCP.
“SARK!” called the MCP. Sark tried to assist the MCP, but was intercepted by Amy as she flung her Identity Disc at him. Sark repelled the attack with his own, but Amy returned it to him by hitting her Disc with her hammer, slamming the Disc into his face. The confusion caused the MCP to lose concentration, giving Tron enough time to fling his Identity Disc into the MCP’s base. The MCP turned blue as the code on the Disc changed his being. “That…will not…save you!” gasped the MCP. “Global upload in three…two…one…!” The MCP vanished. The Doctor checked the status on another terminal, then smiled.
“His whole world is a lot smaller!” she chuckled. She then heard Maleficent sliding across the floor. Rassilon was about to spear her with the tip of her parasol!”
“NO!” shouted William as he wrestled Rassilon away.
“UNHAND ME!” demanded Rassilon. The Doctor ran up to assist William.
“Rassilon, no! She’s powerless!” insisted the Doctor. “Look!” She got Rassilon to look at the prone Maleficent, picking herself up as Amy took the staff. “…Look!” insisted the Doctor. “Is it really worth your time to kill her?” Rassilon struggled, then slowed her struggle as her expression softened.
“…No,” Rassilon finally replied. “She’s been rendered as impotent as I was. …There’s no reason to kill her.”
“…I’d hardly call you impotent,” said the Doctor, “but that’s a discussion for when we’re safely in the TARDIS. …Speaking of which, Tron,” she turned to the reformed security program, “how are things going in the real world?”
“Alan-One’s just reconnected with me!” replied Tron. “All of Maleficent’s deeds have been exposed! The Disney Rebellion is successful! Mickey’s passing sweeping reforms!”
“Splendid! I think we had best return to the world of the Users, hm?”
“I agree,” said William. “And next time I see the Grid, I want there to be an era of peace.”
“Every User, please step onto the pad here,” directed Tron as he showed off a transporter pad, “and hold your Identity Discs up into the air.” Every User, even Maleficent and Gantu, stepped onto the pad and held their discs into the air. Light beamed down onto them, then they vanished.
Everyone was reassembled in the real world, their clothes restored. Mulan then realized something. “Wait, what about the MCP?!” she said.
“No need to worry,” replied the Doctor. “I know exactly where it is.” She opened a CD tray and took out the CD. “Right here.”
“Holy-!” remarked William. “I was just a kid when that technology was getting phased out!”
“Mobius still has CD’s,” revealed Amy, “though, that tech’s getting phased out.”
“And for good reason,” said the Doctor. “While it’s a necessary step in computer technology for any civilization, and yes, us too, these things are quite…how should I put it…”
“Fragile?” asked Rassilon.
“That’s it!” confirmed the Doctor. “And what amazes me is how many civilizations discover and rediscover this technology! The inherent fragility is what prompted the Time Lords to abandon CD’s in favor of the Matrix. I mean, these things scratch so easily and…!” She snapped the CD in half. “Whoopsie!”
“What about Sark?” asked Ace.
“Oh, he’s a renegade, a virus,” replied the Doctor. “With Tron taking the MCP’s place, Sark will be taken care of. In the meantime, we must be going.” She then saw the TARDIS in the corner of the room. “Ah! The guards brought it here! Excellent! Must dash!”
“Wait! My staff!” protested Maleficent.
“Oh, quit whinging!” retorted Ace.
“You’ll get it back when we’re through,” assured the Doctor. “For now, goodbye, everyone! And keep up the good work, Ace!” The Doctor and her crew dashed into the TARDIS, then the familiar Vworp of departure filled everyone’s ears as the TARDIS faded out of existence.
“Catch you later, Professor!” called Ace.
“A pity we have a quest to complete,” said the Doctor, “otherwise you’d be hearing how Ace beat a Dalek with a baseball bat, twice over in her life.” She tapped the tracer onto Maleficent’s staff, then it glowed and changed into part of a crystal puzzle cube. “There we go! That’s segment one and…Rassilon?” Rassilon was looking pensive.
“…They were real,” the Founder of Time Lord Society finally said.
“You mean the programs of the Grid?” asked Amy.
“No, their struggles,” replied Rassilon. “They were nothing more than assemblies of bits…yet they went through an oppressive regime, they could die, they…they’re ants compared to humans and yet…their struggles were real!”
“Rassilon, just because we’re not long-lived like you Time Lords,” countered William, “doesn’t make our struggles less real.”
“Precisely, William,” said the Doctor. “Cosmic horror or genocide-hungry squids in tanks are just two of evil’s forms, and it’s not satisfied with just crushing supposedly higher powers. That was the lesson I learned when I was a boy in my first incarnation. There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea’s asleep, and the rivers dream; people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there’s danger, somewhere there’s injustice,” the Doctor then stuck the tracer into the console, “and somewhere else the tea’s getting cold. Come on, everyone. We’ve got work to do!” She then set the controls and the TARDIS spun through the Time Vortex once again!